I have been a long term lurker on UFN, now I would like to be a little more active here. Here is an article I hadn’t seen on this forum yet. Interesting notes on non-athletic benefits that also go along with PAC 12 membership:
Link
“Aside from athletics, there’s a belief within the institution that the conference connection yields benefits in the classroom too. The university is now aligned in the same region of some of the top institutions in the western U.S.
Being part of a major, Power 5 conference like the Pac-12 is an important factor in recruiting some faculty, sometimes even ones who are not personally hugely invested in athletic competitions,” University of Utah president David Pershing wrote in an email to KSL.com. “Faculty stars want to be associated with schools like Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, etc.”